The present invention relates to a computer to automatically set a region which needs recovery based on self-diagnosis results obtained in self-maintenance and a region which need not undergo such recovery, and a recording medium which records therein a computer program which provides a general-purpose computer with such function.
The present invention relates also to a computer to automatically set backup region for storing backup data required in self-maintenance when storing the backup date in either a backup region in, for example, a hard disk device for storing backup data having a high use frequency so as to read the data out quickly or a backup region in, for example, an external auxiliary storage for storing, for example, as compressed, backup data having a low use frequency, and a recording medium which records therein such a computer program that provides a general-purpose computer with such function.
The present invention relates also to a computer network system such as a client/server system which realizes the above-mentioned function by a plurality of computers interconnected over a computer network to a computer connected to such a computer network system, and also to a recording medium which records therein a computer program which enables a general-purpose computer to function as such a computer.
A self-maintenance system for a computer beforehand saves a copy of data (application files, data files, etc.) in a backup region as backup data, so that if, for example, some data is found to have been damaged or is infected with a computer virus based on results of self-diagnosis, some data may be rewritten with the data saved in the backup region so as to immediately recover the data.
There has been, on the other hand, prevailing such a computer network system as a client/server system with a plurality of computers interconnected over a network, accompanied by improvements in performance of personal computers. In a client/server system, a mistake in user""s operations or simple mistake in configuration may trigger a trouble which influences the whole network system, wherein maintenance work itself becomes impossible and the system down may occur until the trouble is eliminated. Such a possibility increases as the number of computers connected to the network increases, so that the larger the network system is, the larger the economical loss becomes. Therefore, self-maintenance is more important in such a network system as a client/server system than in a stand-alone computer, which is used independently.
Further, in such a system as a client/server system which uses a plurality of computers as clients and servers, an important issue in recent years is an infection with a computer virus. That is, if a computer virus invade a computer of one of a plurality of clients in a client/server system, all the clients and the servers are infected over the network, thus causing a serious loss. To guard against this, it is very important to carry out system maintenance effectively in order to operate the client/server system appropriately. This is basically true also with a standalone computer.
With such a situation given as a background, not only for respective computers of a client/server system but also for a stand-alone computer backup work as part of maintenance is undergone, more specifically a copy of data (application files, data files, etc.) used by each computer is saved as backup data. By thus saving such backup data and performing self-maintenance, it is possible to immediately recover data in each computer if the data is damaged or the computer is infected with a virus.
In self-maintenance for a stand-alone computer of a conventional type or each computer connected to such a computer network system as a client/server system, time required for the self-maintenance is reduced by specifying beforehand data which need not be recovered so as to be handled as something not subject to the self-maintenance. Conventionally, however, data not subject to self-maintenance has been set manually, so that although, for example, a user-created working file, a temp folder, etc., which can be easily recognized as something not subject to self-maintenance can be set to that effect, the other data needs sophisticated knowledge and know-how to set as something not subject to self-maintenance.
Besides, each computer recently has an increasingly large scale of the OS or the client OS or file size of application software as well as increasingly complicated contents, thus requiring longer time for self-maintenance, and not only an ordinary user but even a system manager can hardly determine whether a region should be subject to self-maintenance or not. Therefore, load on working increases and also whole required working time becomes longer, thereby to lower availability of a stand-alone computer and of network system such as a client/server system.
Furthermore, recently each computer has an increasingly large scale of the OS or the client OS or file size of application software as well as increasingly complicated contents, thus requiring an even larger capacity of backup regions than the conventional one. With this, there are some cases where each computer requires a few hundreds of mega-bytes or even one giga-byte or more as a capacity of the backup region. Furthermore, such a computer network system as a client/server system may require a vast capacity of memory to set all of backup regions of a plurality of client computers in a server computer, which may be difficult to secure sometimes.
In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a stand-alone computer, a computer network system such as a client/server system interconnecting a plurality of computers over a network, and a computer used in such a system capable of, in self-maintenance, setting regions subject to self-maintenance and those not subject to self-maintenance without a need of specifying a region clearly known not to be subject to self-maintenance, or investigating the OS and application software, or reviewing settings by referring to information stored by an individual. It is another object of the present invention to provide a recording medium for recording a computer program which enables a general-purpose computer to realize such a computer.
It is further another object of the present invention to provide a stand-alone computer, a computer network system such as a client/server system interconnecting a plurality of computers over a network, and a computer used in such a system having a reduced backup data storage capacity by backing up frequently-used backup data and not-immediately-required backup data in different storage media. It is further another object of the present invention to provide a storage medium which stores therein a computer program that enables a general-purpose computer to realize such a computer.
In short, a stand-alone computer or a computer connected to such a computer network system as a client/server system according to the present invention comprises: means for summing up recovery-result logs accompanied by self-diagnosis results for each data piece; an analysis-condition file for setting conditions for analysis; means for analyzing whether the results obtained by summing up the recovery-result logs for each data piece satisfy the conditions; and means for setting, when the results satisfy the conditions, a file of interest as a one not subject to subsequent recovery.
Also, in short, a stand-alone computer or a computer connected to a computer network system such as a client/server system according to the present invention automatically classifies frequently-used backup data and not-immediately-required backup data to back up the frequently-used backup data in a storage medium of a relatively high read out speed, and to back up the not-immediately-required backup data, even as compressed, in a storage medium of a relatively low read out speed.
A computer according to the present invention comprises: a backup-data storage unit for storing backup data of data usable by the computer itself; a diagnosis-and-recovery object settings storage unit where information to specify data to be subject to diagnosis and recovery among the data usable by the computer itself is set a diagnosis-and-recovery unit for replacing with the data saved in the backup-data storage unit such data specified by the information set in the diagnosis-and-recovery-object settings storage unit, among the data diagnosed to need recovery based on results of self-diagnosis on data usable by the computer itself, thus recovering the data; a diagnosis-and-recovery result storage unit for storing information which specifies recovered data each time the diagnosis-and-recovery means performs self-diagnosis; a diagnosis-and-recovery result summing-up unit for classifying storage contents of the diagnosis-and-recovery result storage unit into information which specifies each data piece and seem up the classified information, each time the diagnosis-and-recovery unit performs self-diagnosis; a diagnosis-recovery-result summing-up storage unit for storing results of summing up by the diagnosis-and-recovery result summing-up unit; an analysis-condition storage unit for storing conditions for analyzing the storage contents of the diagnosis-and-recovery result summing-up storage unit; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result analysis unit for analyzing the storage contents of the diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up storage unit according to the storage contents of the analysis-condition storage unit, to decide whether each data piece should be subject to diagnosis and recovery; and a new-diagnosis-and-recovery-object setting unit for changing settings of the diagnosis-and-recovery-object settings storage unit according to the results of analysis by the diagnosis-and-recovery results analysis unit.
Also, in the above-mentioned computer according to the present invention, the conditions stored in the analysis-condition storage unit include a frequency and the number of times of performing recovery for each data piece.
In such a computer according to the present invention as mentioned above, each time diagnosis is performed as many as the predetermined number of times each time the predetermined length of time passes, or each time user issues as instruction, data not to need subsequent diagnosis and recovery is known based on the results of the hitherto performed self-diagnosis, so that as for only such data that needs diagnosis and recovery, diagnosis and recovery is undergone when the subsequent diagnosis is to be performed.
Also, a computer network system according to the present invention comes in such a system in which a first computer and a second computer which stores backup data of the data usable by the first computer are connected to a network, one of computers connected to the network comprises: a diagnosis-and-recovery-object settings storage unit where information to specify data to be subject to diagnosis and recovery, among the data usable by the first computer; a diagnosis-and-recovery unit for replacing with data saved in the second computer such data specified by the information set in the diagnosis-and-recovery-object settings storage unit among data diagnosed to need recovery based on results of diagnosing data usable by the first computer, thus recovering the data; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result storage unit for storing information which specifies recovered data each time the diagnosis-and-recovery unit diagnoses the first computer; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result collecting/summing-up unit for collecting the storage contents of the diagnosis-and-recovery-result storage unit and classifying the collected contents into information which specifies each data piece and summing the classified data up each time the diagnosis-and-recovery unit diagnoses the first computer; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up storage unit for storing results of summing up by the diagnosis-and-recovery-result collecting/summing-up unit; an analysis-condition storage unit for storing conditions for analyzing the storage contents of the diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up storage unit; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result analysis unit for analyzing the storage contents of the diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up storage unit according to the storage contents of the analysis-condition storage unit, to decide whether each data piece should be subject to diagnosis and recovery; and a diagnosis-and-recovery-object settings changing unit for changing settings of the diagnosis-and-recovery-object settings storage unit according to the results of analyzing by the diagnosis-and-recovery-result analysis unit.
In such a computer network system according to the present invention as mentioned above, the conditions stored in the analysis-condition storage unit include a frequency and the number of times of recovering each data piece concerning the first computer.
In such a computer network system according to the present invention, in every first computer, each time diagnosis is performed as many as the predetermined number of times, each time the predetermined length of time passes, or each time a user issues an instructions, data not to need subsequent diagnosis and recovery is known based on the results of the hitherto self-diagnosis performed by the every first computer, so that as for only such data that needs diagnosis and recovery, diagnosis and recovery is undergone when the subsequent diagnosis is to be performed.
Also, the computer network system according to the present invention which is connected via a network to such a computer that comprises: a diagnosis-and-recovery-object settings storage unit for setting information which specifies data to be subject to diagnosis and recovery among the data usable by a computer subject to diagnosis; a diagnosis-and-recovery unit for replacing with backup data such data specified by the information set in the diagnosis-and-recovery-object settings storage unit, among the data diagnosed to need recovery based on results of diagnosing the data usable by the computer subject to diagnosis, thus recovering the data; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result storage unit for storing information which specifies recovered data each time the diagnosis-and-recovery unit performs diagnosis; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result collecting/summing-up unit for collecting the storage contents of the diagnosis-and-recovery-result storage unit to classify the collected contents into information which specifies each data piece and sum the classified information up each time the diagnosis-and-recovery unit diagnoses the computer subject to diagnosis and recovery; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up storage unit for storing results of summing up by the diagnosis-and-recovery-result collecting/summing-up unit; an analysis-condition storage unit for storing conditions for analyzing the storage contents of the diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up storage unit; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result analysis unit for analyzing the storage contents of the diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up storage unit according to the storage contents of the analysis-condition storage unit and deciding whether each data piece should be subject to diagnosis and recovery; and a diagnosis-and-recovery-object settings changing unit for changing settings of the diagnosis-and-recovery-object settings storage unit according to the results of analysis by the diagnosis-and-recovery-result analysis unit.
Also, in the above-mentioned computer according to the present invention, the conditions stored in the analysis-condition storage unit include a frequency and the number of times of recovering each data piece relating to the computer subject to diagnosis.
By such a computer according to the present invention, data which need not undergo subsequent diagnosis-and-recovery is known based on results of self-diagnosis obtained by the diagnosis operations performed hitherto by each computer subject to diagnosis, each time the computer subject to diagnosis undergoes diagnosis as many as the predetermined number of times, or each time a predetermined lapse of time has passed, or each time a user issues an instruction to do so, so that only the data which needs diagnosis and recovery in the subsequent diagnosis undergoes diagnosis and recovery.
Also, a computer-readable recording medium according to the present invention records a computer program which causes a computer to beforehand store diagnosis-and-recovery-object setting information which is information to specify data to be subject to diagnosis and recovery among data usable by the computer, to replace with backup data such data specified by the information set as the diagnosis-and-recovery-object setting information, among the data diagnosed to need recovery based on results of self-diagnosis performed on the data usable by the computer, thus recovering the data, comprising: program code means for causing the computer to store the diagnosis-and-recovery-result information which specifies recovered data, each time self-diagnosis is performed; program code means for causing the computer to classify the contents of the diagnosis-and-recovery-result information into information which specifies each data piece and summing it up, each time self-diagnosis is performed; program code means causing the computer to store the diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up information obtained by summing up the diagnosis-and-recovery-result information; program code means for causing the computer to analyze the diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up information according to predetermined analysis-condition information to decide whether each data piece should be subject to diagnosis and recovery; and program code means for causing the computer to change settings of the diagnosis-and-recovery-object setting information according to the results obtained by analyzing the diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up information.
Also, in the above-mentioned configuration of the recording medium according to the present invention, the analysis-condition information includes a frequency and the number of times of recovering each data piece.
When the contents of such a recording medium according to the present invention are read into a general-purpose computer, each time diagnosis is performed as many as the predetermined number of times, or each time a predetermined lapse of time has passed, or each time a user issues an instruction to that effect, data which need not undergo subsequent diagnosis-and-recovery is known based on results of self-diagnosis performed in the hitherto diagnosis operations, so that only the data which needs diagnosis and recovery in the subsequent diagnosis undergoes diagnosis and recovery.
Also, the computer-readable recording medium according to the present invention records a computer program which program causes a computer connected to a computer subject to diagnosis to beforehand store diagnosis-and-recovery-object setting information which is information to specify data to be subject to diagnosis and recovery among data usable by the computer itself, in order to replace with backup data such data specified by the information set as the diagnosis-and-recovery-object setting information, among the data diagnosed to need recovery based on results obtained by performing self-diagnosis on the data usable by the computer itself, thus recovering the data, comprising: program code means for causing the computer to classify contents of diagnosis-and-recovery-result information of the computer subject to diagnosis into information which specifies each data piece and sum it up, each time the computer subject to diagnosis performs self-diagnosis; program code means for causing the computer to store diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up information obtained by summing up the diagnosis-and-recovery-result information for each diagnosis-object computer; program code means for causing the computer to analyze the diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up information according to predetermined analysis-condition information, to decide whether each data piece should be subject to diagnosis and recovery, for each diagnosis-object computer; and program code means for causing the computer to change settings of diagnosis-and-recovery-object setting information of the diagnosis-object computer according to the results of analyzing the diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up information.
In the above-mentioned configuration of the recording medium according to the present invention, the analysis-condition information includes a frequency and the number of times of recovering each data piece concerning each of the computers subject to diagnosis.
When the contents of such a recording medium are read into a computer connected to a network, each time diagnosis is performed on each of computers subject to diagnosis as many as the predetermined number of times, or each time a predetermined lapse of time has passed, or each time a user issues an instruction to that effect, only data which needs diagnosis and recovery undergoes diagnosis and recovery during diagnosis of each diagnosis-object computer, so that time required to diagnose each diagnosis-object computer is reduced.
A computer according to the present invention comprises: a diagnosis-and-recovery unit for replacing with backup data such data diagnosed to need recovery based on results of self-diagnosis performed on data usable by the computer itself, thus recovering the data; a plurality of storage media for storing backup data; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result storage unit for storing information which specifies recovered data each time the diagnosis-and-recovery unit performs self-diagnosis; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up unit for classifying the storage contents of the diagnosis-and-recovery-result storage unit into information which specifies each data piece and sum up the classified information, each time the diagnosis-and-recovery unit performs self-diagnosis; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up storage unit for storing the results obtained by summing-up by the diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up unit; an analysis-condition storage unit for storing conditions for analyzing the storage contents of the diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up storage unit; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result analysis unit for analyzing the storage contents of the diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up storage unit according to the storage contents of the analysis-condition storage unit, to decide into which of the plurality of storage media the backup data for each data piece should be stored; and a backup-medium changing unit for changing a storage medium for storing backup data among the plurality of storage media according to the analysis results of the diagnosis-and-recovery-result analysis unit.
More specifically, the computer according to the present invention further comprises: a plurality of storage units; and a control unit connected to the plurality of storage unit, which can performs the steps of: replacing with backup data stored in any one of the plurality of storage units the data diagnosed to need recovery based on results of self-diagnosis performed on data usable by the computer itself, thus recovering the data; storing information which specifies thus recovered data in one of the above-mentioned plurality of storage units, each time self-diagnosis is performed; classifying information which specifies the recovered data and summing it up, each time self-diagnosis is performed; storing summing-up results in one of the plurality of storage units; analyzing the summing-up results according to given conditions, to decide into which one of the plurality of storage units the backup data for each data piece should be stored; and changing a storage unit to store the backup data, among the plurality of storage units, according to the analysis results.
In the above-mentioned configuration of the computer according to the present invention, the plurality of storage media require their respective access times different from each other required for reading out data stored therein, so that the backup-medium changing unit compresses data before storing the data into a storage medium requiring a relatively long read-out time.
Also, in the above-mentioned configuration of the computer according to the present invention, the conditions stored in the analysis-condition storage unit includes a frequency and the number of times of recovering each data piece.
In such a computer according to the present invention, data is automatically classified into frequently-used backup data and not-immediately-required backup data and backed up in storage media different from each other. Specifically, the frequently-used backup data is backed up in a storage medium having a relatively fast read-out speed and the not-immediately-required backup data, into a storage medium having a relatively slow read-out speed. Further, the not-immediately-required backup data is compressed before being backed up in the storage medium.
Also, a computer network system according to the present invention have a plurality of computer connected thereto including a computer subject to diagnosis provided with a diagnosis-and-recovery unit for replacing with backup data such data diagnosed to need recovery based on results of self-diagnosis performed on data usable by computer subject to diagnosis itself, thus recovering the data, wherein at least two of the plurality of computers including the diagnosis-object computer each comprise one or more of: one or more of a plurality of storage media for storing backup data for data usable by the diagnosis-object computer; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result storage unit for storing information which specifies recovered data, each time the diagnosis-and-recovery unit performs self-diagnosis; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up unit for classifying the storage contents of the diagnosis-and-recovery-result storage unit into information which specifies each data piece and summing it up, each time the diagnosis-and-recovery unit performs self-diagnosis; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up storage unit for storing the summing-up results by the diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up means; an analysis-condition storage unit for storing conditions for analyzing the storage contents of the diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up storage unit; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result analysis unit for analyzing the storage contents of the diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up storage unit according to the storage contents of the analysis-condition storage unit, to decide into which one of the plurality of storage media the backup data for each data piece should be stored; and a backup-medium changing unit for changing a backup-data-storage medium to store backup data among the plurality of storage media according to the results of analysis by the diagnosis-and-recovery-result analysis unit.
More specifically, the computer network system according to the present invention has a plurality of computers connected thereto including a computer subject to diagnosis which comprises: a plurality of storage media; and a control unit capable of replacing with backup data stored in one of the plurality of storage media the data diagnosed to need recovery based on results of self-diagnosis performed on data usable by the computer itself, thus recovering the data, wherein at least two computers of the plurality of computers including the diagnosis-object computer each comprise a control unit capable of performing one or more of the steps of: storing information which specifies recovered data into one of the plurality of storage units each time the diagnosis-object computer performs self-diagnosis; classifying information which specifies recovered data and summing it up each time the diagnosis-object computer performs self-diagnosis; storing summing-up results in one of the plurality of storage units; analyzing the summing-up results according to given conditions, to decide into which one of the plurality of storage units the backup data of each data piece should be stored; and changing a storage unit into which the backup data should be stored among the plurality of storage units.
In the above-mentioned configuration of the computer network system according to the present invention, the plurality of storage units take mutually different read-out times for reading out data stored therein, so that the backup-medium changing unit compresses data before the data is stored into such a storage medium that takes a relatively long read-out time.
Also, in the above-mentioned configuration of the computer network system according to the present invention, the conditions stored in the analysis-condition storage unit include a frequency and the number of times of recovering each data piece.
In such a computer network system according to the present invention, a computer subject to recovery processing automatically classifies data into frequently-used backup data and not-immediately-required backup data and backs them up in mutually different storage media. Specifically, the frequently-used backup data is backed up in a storage medium having a relatively high read-out speed and the not-immediately-required backup data, in a storage medium having a relatively low read-out speed. Further, the not-immediately-required backup data is compressed before being backed up in the storage medium.
Also, the computer connected to the computer network system according to the present invention is connected to a diagnosis-object computer which comprises a diagnosis-and-recovery unit for replacing with backup data such data diagnosed to need recovery based on results of self-diagnosis performed on data usable by the computer subject to diagnosis itself, thus recovering the data, comprising: one or more of a plurality of storage media for storing backup data of data usable by the diagnosis-object computer; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result storage unit for storing information which specifies recovered data each time the diagnosis-and-recovery unit performs self-diagnosis; a diagnosis-and-recovery summing-up unit for classifying the storage contents of the diagnosis-and-recovery-result storage unit into information which specifies each data piece and summing it up each time the diagnosis-and-recovery unit performs self-diagnosis; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up storage unit for storing the summing-up results obtained by the diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up unit; an analysis-condition storage unit for storing conditions for analyzing the storage contents of the diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up storage unit; a diagnosis-and-recovery-result analysis unit for analyzing the storage contents of the diagnosis-and-recovery-result summing-up storage unit according to the storage contents of the analysis-condition storage unit, to decide into which one of the plurality of storage media the backup data for each data piece should be stored; and a backup-medium changing unit for changing a backup-data storage medium to store backup data therein among the plurality of storage media.
The computer connected to the computer network system according to the present invention which is connected to a computer subject to diagnosis and which specifically comprises a plurality of storage media and a control unit capable of replacing with backup data stored in the storage medium the data diagnosed to need recovery based on results of self-diagnosis performed on data usable by the computer itself comprises a control unit capable of performing at least one of the steps of: storing information which specifies recovered data into one of the plurality of storage media each time the diagnosis-object computer performs self-diagnosis; classifying data into information which specifies the recovered data and summing it up each time the diagnosis-object computer performs self-diagnosis; storing summing-up results into one of the plurality of storage media; analyzing the summing-up results according to given conditions, to decide into which one of the plurality of storage media the backup data for each data should be stored; and changing a storage medium to store the backup data therein among the plurality of storage media according to analysis results.
Also, in the above-mentions configuration of the computer connected to the computer network system according to the present invention, the plurality of storage media take mutually different times for reading out data stored therein, so that the backup-data-medium changing unit compresses data before storing it into a storage medium taking a relatively long read-out time.
Also, in the above-mentioned configuration of the computer connected to the computer network system according to the present invention, the conditions stored in the analysis-condition storage unit include a frequency and a number of times of recovering each data piece.
Such a computer connected to the computer network system according to the present invention uses a plurality of computers including a computer subject to diagnosis-and-recovery, to automatically classify data into backup data usable frequently by the recovery-object computer and not-immediately-required backup data and back them up in mutually different storage media. Specifically, the frequently-used backup data is backed up into a storage medium having a relatively high read-out speed and the not-immediately-required backup data, into a storage medium having a relatively low read-out speed. Further, the not-immediately-required backup data is compressed before being backed up into the storage medium.
Also, a recording medium according to the present invention is a computer-readable medium for storing a computer program which causes a computer to read out from a plurality of storage media, backup data for such data diagnosed to need recovery based on results of self-diagnosis performed on data usable by the computer itself, in order to replace the data with the read out backup data to thus recover the data, comprising: program code means for causing the computer to store information which specifies recovered data each time self-diagnosis is performed; program code means for causing the computer to classify information which specifies the recovered data stored and sum it up, each time self-diagnosis is performed; program code means for causing the computer to store the summing-up results; program code means for causing the computer to analyze the summing-up results according to given conditions, to decide into which one of the plurality of storage media the backup data for each data piece should be stored; and program code means for causing the computer to change a backup-data-storage medium among the plurality of storage media according to the analysis results.
The recordings medium according to the present invention further comprises such program code means that permits the computer to compress data before writing it into a storage medium, having a relatively large data read-out time, of the above-mentioned plurality of storage media.
Also, in the recording medium according to the present invention, the given conditions include a frequency and the number of times of recovering each data piece.
When the computer program recorded in such a recording medium according to the present invention is read into a general-purpose computer, the above-mentioned computer is realized; and when one or more of the respective program code means which constitute the computer program are read into the general-purpose computer, the above-mentioned computer connected to the computer network system is realized.
The above and further objects and features of the invention will more fully be apparent from the following detailed description with accompanying drawings.